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The History of the Martin County Convent is the History of Stanton

The origins of the City of Stanton and Martin County are linked to six German Carmelite friars from Kansas who came to West Texas to set up a Catholic colony. They arrived in August of 1882 and named their town Marienfeld. Here, they built the first buildings of what would become the town of Stanton, nestled halfway between Fort Worth and El Paso, including the adobe Monastery of the Most Pure Heart of Mary, whose structure still stands today.

The Martin County Convent, as it is commonly referred to, is the only remaining building on this former religious compound of great significance to West Texas and southern New Mexico. At different points in its history, the area surrounding the monastery has played host to a church, farm, school, boarding house, and nunnery.

The Martin County Convent Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit group of citizens actively working to preserve this historic site. Their hope is to restore the building to its original appearance as the 1884 Carmelite Monastery and open it to the public as an interpretive center on the founding of Stanton and Our Lady of Mercy Academy. The grounds are to be landscaped into a native plant garden.

Learn more about the history of the Historic Carmelite Monastery in Stanton, Texas.